Indian (2001)
Starring: Sunny Deol, Shilpa Shetty
Director: K Mahajan
Synopsis: Turgid crap with Sunny and rippling muscles taking on some horrid terrorists
Reviewed by: Faiz Khan

 

Sunny Deol romps back into town with another all-action, "topical" film about terrorism, corruption and all the familiar ingredients that Bollywood has served up a thousand times before, with the famous Deol fist very much in evidence throughout. The closest commercial Hindi cinema has come to producing a genuinely gripping film on terrorism remains Sarfarosh, and Indian falls well short of the standard achieved by that film. In truth, it is little more than a mishmash of familiar ingredients, reasonably slickly executed but ultimately quite unimpressive.

Waseem Khan (Mukesh Rishi), the head of some Lashkar or other, vows to destroy India while standing on the snow-covered slopes along the border. Captured Indian soldiers naturally proclaim their undying loyalty to the motherland and promptly pay for it with their lives as their throats are slit.

Having realised that direct confrontation has brought only failure, Waseem decides to infiltrate India and destroy it from within.

The action shifts to Mumbai, where matters are complicated by the introduction of Waseem Khan's identical twin. The twin is arrested while the real Waseem escapes in a car, only to find his double blocking the road ahead. Bang! Bang! Bang! Out steps DCP Azad (Sunny Deol), revealing himself to be the only policeman clever enough to realise that the arrested twin is merely a decoy while the real Waseem remains at large. After the obligatory high-speed chase, Waseem is finally captured and imprisoned.

Azad takes charge of the case and insists that Waseem be moved into a separate cell, which turns out to be rather palatial accommodation for a supposedly dangerous terrorist.

In all the excitement, however, Azad forgets that his wife (Shilpa Shetty) has been waiting patiently at the jeweller's since 9 p.m. It is now midnight, yet such is her fascination with jewellery that she has apparently remained rooted to the same chair for three solid hours. Naturally she erupts in fury, even smashing a window in the process—not exactly the sort of behaviour one expects from the wife of a senior police officer.

Following the obligatory comic bickering, she changes into tight jeans and joins hubby on the streets while he serenades her with "Thhat Nawabi," accompanied by his ever-present cronies. Mercifully, she then disappears from the film for the next hour while Azad gets back to more pressing matters.

One dark night Azad is summoned by the Director General of Police (Raj Babbar), who informs him that Waseem Khan must be released immediately because he is an internationally important figure and his continued detention could spark an international incident.

Naturally, it transpires that the DGP is corrupt to the core and deeply involved with Waseem and the forces trying to destabilise India.

Azad's response?

He simply pumps the DGP full of bullets.

The murder is witnessed by four young aspiring policemen who have failed to join the force because they lack the right political connections. Such is their admiration for Azad that they view this cold-blooded execution not as murder but as an act of supreme heroism. Azad calmly instructs them to dispose of the body.

Problems soon multiply.

The murdered DGP also happens to be Wifey's beloved father.

Naturally, she wants his killer brought to justice.

Enter the CBI in the shape of Om Puri, who gradually pieces together the truth. On discovering that Azad is responsible, he promptly destroys the evidence because, after all, the executioner was merely ridding society of a corrupt deshdrohi.

The conspiracy to destroy India takes another turn with the arrival of Singhania (Danny Denzongpa). I must confess that I can scarcely remember what Singhania's actual motive is beyond the usual lust for money and power, but he soon emerges as the mastermind behind the entire operation. A predictable game of cat and mouse follows between him and Azad, with the obligatory melodrama thrown in as Azad's wife discovers that her husband murdered her father and promptly throws him out of the house. Fortunately, her mother later remedies the situation by slapping some sense into her and explaining exactly what sort of man her late father really was.

Indian is essentially another showcase for Sunny Deol's fists, and his fans will undoubtedly lap it up. Beyond that, however, there is precious little substance. The loud dialogue and endless action sequences are aimed squarely at the front-bench audience and nobody else. The film loses what little momentum it possesses once Danny enters the proceedings, after which one merely waits for the inevitable finale, secure in the knowledge that good will triumph over evil.

Sunny Deol spends much of the film shouting and leaves surprisingly little impression. Shilpa Shetty has a thankfully small role with very little to do. Raj Babbar is wasted, while Danny Denzongpa appears distinctly off form.

The music barely registers, with songs inserted at the most awkward and inappropriate moments.

Director Mahajan has fashioned a reasonably slick action film, raising it marginally above the average maar-dhaar entertainer, but in the final analysis it remains little more than that.